Dragon Ball Omega: Bra's story
by Hadomaru
Summary: Bra starts her junior year, hoping to make new connections and find romance, but she finds herself increasingly attracted to Goten. Meanwhile, ghosts from the Z-fighter's past come back to haunt her. Can she balance it all together?
1. Bra's first day

_This is the first in a set of fics set in the DBZ universe. For these stories, I've sort of reinterpretation the whole mythos to include the movies in some fashion, although some of them might be heavily altered to make them fit (a few are in alternate timelines) but this particular story won't be very much affected by that. GT (or at least a version of it) is considered canon for this, but it too is in an alternate time-line, and this story is not in that timeline. Rated M for violence, profanity, and some sexual situations . This story will have more of an action bend than my last one, at least after the first chapter. Goten's not in the story yet. _

Bra opened her eyes for what had to be the tenth time that night. She was so excited, that she was only able to sleep in short bursts. Today was the first day of her junior year of high school, and at a new school at that. Ordinarily, she wouldn't really be looking forward to going back to school, but this year was going to be different. For one thing, this time her school was the same one that her best friend Pan attended. Bra always had a little bit of trouble making friends, mostly because she herself was only half human. Half her blood came from her father, Vegeta, the prince of a race of intergalactic warriors with godlike strength and abilities called the Saiyans. While unlike her father and big brother, she wasn't interested in training or fighting, she still possessed a ridiculous amount of strength simply because her father was so powerful. While not ashamed of her heritage, she was very paranoid of how it would make other people perceive her. It was for this reason she was going to a different school this year. Last year, at her old school, she had to use her powers to save a boy in her class from a large piece of the ceiling that came loose and threatened to crush him. Afterward, she was too afraid to show herself in school for the rest of the year, so she was home-schooled for a few months. But this time she had a chance to start over. Still, having a close friend with a similarly weird racial background was a comfort to be sure.

However, the real reason she was so excited was because a certain boy she met over the summer also went there. The boy's name was Sheat, and he had met Bra while he was working in a bookstore. He was handsome, with perfectly combed long, brown hair, a toned yet not over-muscled physique . His eyes were piercing blue and he had a warm, approachable smile. But the most attractive thing to Bra was the amount of personal attention he payed her. When he found out that she would be going to the same school as him this year, he offered to give her a tour of the whole school on her first day. She had went back to that bookstore at least 10 times that summer and gotten pretty well acquainted with him. She was already head over heels for him even before Pan mentioned that he was apparently the most popular guy at school. The fact that a popular kid like him would show interest in her was enough to make her giddy.

Tired of just laying around in her bed, she jumped up to get ready. It was still a half hour before her alarm went off, but she wanted to have more time to get ready anyway. She ran into the bathroom connected to her room and began her daily routine. She straightened and brushed her turquoise colored, shoulder length hair into a basic hime cut and put a red hair band. She applied her basic makeup, not enough to be noticeable, just enough to look vaguely pleasant. She felt momentarily weary, yawned, and seemed to get another burst of energy and ran back into her room to pick out her outfit. She picked out a red halter top that showed off her midriff as well as a matching miniskirt, pair of boots, and arm warmers. She wore this outfit often because it was her favorite. She hadn't shown Sheat yet, and hoped it would be a pleasant surprise. She then sat on the edge of her bed and began to think over just what she would say to him. Her ponderings were interrupted by her mom (who's name was Bulma) walking lazily into her room while yawning copiously.

"Bra, why are you up so early?" She asked

"Mom, you know I have to get ready for my first day of school." Bra replied with just a hint of incredulity.

"But it's 5 am. School doesn't start 'til 8"

"Yeah, well... I just can't sleep. Daddy's probably already up isn't he?"

"Heh" Bulma chortled with annoyance. Bra was right of course. Vegeta always got up early in the morning to train. Probably, he had already awoken Bra's brother Trunks to do the same.

"I'm going back to bed, you all are crazy!" Bulma shouted exasperatedly.

"Love you too mom!" Bra chirped.

"Mmmhmm, just do me a favor and try to be quiet, ok? I'm too old for this."

"Sure thing mom!" both of them knew that she would not.

After Bulma went back to bed, Bra dashed to the nearest kitchen to fix herself breakfast. Because she wasn't much of a cook, this meant cereal and milk. Because she was half Saiyan, this meant about 6 bowls. After wolfing that down, she went into the nearest family room to try and watch TV to pass the time. When her short attention span proved this a futile effort, she resigned herself to absentmindedly pacing the floor while fantasizing about just what she was going to say to her potential suitor. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, it was time to go to school. She saw her father and brother walk into the room shirtless, taking a break from particularly grueling training session. Trunks had to go to work at Capsule corp, being a high ranking corporate executive. On his way, he'd drop off Bra at school.

"Training hard bro?" Bra asked playfully

"You might say that. Any chance of you joining us sometime?"

"Not likely" Bra said dismissively. "Besides, I think I'm plenty strong." Trunks was about to retort, but he was cut off by Vegeta.

"Who ate all the damn cereal?!" he shouted.

"Sorry daddy, I was hungry. " Bra said, then put on an exaggerated pouty face. His daughter being perhaps the only person he just found he couldn't yell out, he merely walked away irritated.

"Richest family in the world and we don't even have more than one box of cereal..." he muttered and walked off to wake up his wife.

"Uh-oh. Trunks, I don't think we want to be around when he wakes her up."Trunks apparently agreed, because he put on his work suit with speed that Bra had never seen.

"Lets roll." Trunks said, departing with his sister Bra to the parking lot in front of their house to get into his hovercar. And not a moment too soon, for their parents shouting match was loud enough to be heard outside. As they drove off in the direction of the school, Bra's heart began pounding.

The hovercar reached the school in about 4 minutes.

"Thanks Trunks!" She said.

"Yeah, whatever." He said. "Have a good day at school" he was quick to add on.

"Of course!" She said and practically jumped out of the car.

As she walked up to the big front doors, she was set upon by a sudden wave of nervousness. Starting over at a new school had it's advantages yes, but it was also a new and sometimes frightening experience. Her pace slowed for only a moment, then she forced herself through the uneasiness and opened the doors. She found the layout inside to be fairly similar to her old school as they probably were designed by the same architect. Before she could get any preliminary exploring done, she heard a familiar voice call out to her from behind.

"Bra! Bra! Over here!" Bra turned around in a flash was greeted by the sight of her best friend Pan. Like her, Pan was part Saiyan, and although she was only a quarter Saiyan, she was stronger than Bra because she actually enjoyed training.

"Oh my god, Pan, it's so good to see you!" The two friends embraced each other, then compared their schedules. They found that they only had one class together.

"Hey, we've got algebra together, third period!" Bra said. Pan made an uncomfortable face at the mention of the word algebra.

"Ha ha, I see I might have to help you out." Bra teased

"Yeah, laugh it up." Pan said sarcastically. She then smiled at Bra cheekily "Soooo... have you seen you-know-who yet?"

Bra blushed "Shhh! Don't let anyone hear you!"

" Okay, okay... but have you?"

Bra blushed again "No, not yet. But I'm hoping to meet up with him before my first class"

"ooh, looks like someone has a crush." Pan teased, and then playfully poked her friend in the armpit.

Bra turned an even brighter shade of red, closed her eyes, and involuntarily gave off an embarrassed smile "Stop it" she weakly protested. Pan just laughed.

"Good morning ladies, not fighting over me I hope?" Said a cool, confident voice behind them. Bra's heart skipped a beat. She turned around, finding the warmly smiling Sheat waving at her.

"Hi Sheat!" She said enthusiastically.

"Well hello there, gorgeous." He replied, causing Bra to giggle nervously. He turned his attention momentarily to her friend.

"Your name's Pan right?"

"Yes it is!" Pan replied.

"Well would you mind if I borrow your friend for a while? I kinda promised her a tour of the school."

"Go right ahead. Don't worry Bra, we'll meet up at lunch!" Sheat took a hold of Bra's hand, causing her heart to accelerate, and led her off to give her a somewhat brief tour of the school, as they only had ten minutes till classes started. Bra gave one final look back to Pan, who simply let off a huge grin and a thumbs up gesture.

After he had finished his little tour, he led her to beside his locker, where a small group of girls stared at them inconspicuously a few lockers down.

"So, uh, Bra do you think you'd like to go out on a date, say tomorrow night?" He asked, showing just a moment of vulnerability.

"Sure!" She shouted in surprise. Recovering from the excitement for just a moment she said more calmly "uh, I mean, yes, I'd love to."

"Good! See you around." He then planted a light kiss on her cheek and walked off. After he was out of sight, she let out a squeal of happiness. A few seconds later, the group of girls walked over toward Bra, sullen looks on their faces.

Bra, too happy to notice their unfriendly facial cues, simply thought they wanted to introduce themselves to the new girl. "Oh, hello! I'm new here. My name's Bra, what's yours?"

The leader of the group raised an eyebrow. "It's Monita."

"Ooh, that's pretty I like it!" At that comment, Monita's face changed to a cruel grin.

"Thanks, I like your outfit..."

"Oh thanks, it's my favorite, I..."

"It makes you look like a hooker!" Monita bit in.

"I – what?"

A girl behind Monita started in with her. 'Yeah, and what kind of name is Bra anyway?"

"Why are you saying that?" She said as she tried to comprehend how this conversation was going. But they left her no breathing room as they tore into her verbally. After about a minute of these insults, Monita motioned to silence her posse.

"You stay the hell a way from Sheat, he's way to good for a hussy like you!" What Bra couldn't have known was that Monita was Sheat's on-again-off-again girlfriend, although at the moment it was very much off-again. Monita's friends joined in with affirmations of this threat. Then, as soon as they had came, they left.

Bra felt a stinging sadness for just a few seconds, only for it to be overtaken by rage. Half Saiyan, she was quite preternaturally disposed to having a bad temper. For a second it felt like her hair was standing up, which made Bra feel self-conscious once more. Frustrate, she punched her locker lightly. It left a huge dent, but luckily for her, no one was around to see it. Seeing the pointlessness of her anger, she took a deep breath and started to walk off to her first class. She so much to look forward too, why let those girls ruin it for her.

The rest of her day was fairly standard first day of school fair. She got introduced to her classes and books, and reconnected with Pan at lunch .At the end of the day, her mom picked her up.

"Well, don't you look happy?" Bulma asked her smiling, dreamy eyed daughter.

"Mom, I got a date with the cutest guy!"

"That's wonderful honey!" She congratulated. "Just make sure your careful."

" I know mom, I know." As she walked into her house, she knew that tonight was going to be a long, probably mostly sleepless night, but tomorrow would be simply amazing.

_Editors note; Monita is pronounced Moni – tuh, think monitor. _


	2. A fateful date

_Alright, on to the second chapter. This is the one where the action picks up and the male lead gets introduced. Hope you guys like it!_

Bra's second day at school was a slow one. The teachers seemed to drone on and on and the minutes were as hours. Despite her current disinterest in anything not Sheat-related, she took plenty of notes. Preforming well in school was never a problem for her, and high levels of intelligence ran in her mother's family. Finally, fourth period had ended and it was time for lunch. She met up with Pan and they sat alone. Pan was, due to her spunky and amiable personality, along with her enthusiasm for sports and school spirit, actually fairly popular at school. She didn't really care one way or another though, and was determined to sit with her best friend, whether or not she was inexplicably unpopular or not.

"Man, I wonder why everyone is giving you the cold shoulder." Pan said.

"I dunno" Bra replied and gave an over-exaggerated shrug. "I don't really care right now anyway".

"You're just excited about your date tonight."

"Like you wouldn't believe." This would be her first serious date since middle school. She had plenty of boyfriends then, but now she was looking for something less shallow.

"I'm real happy for ya Bra" Pan said.

"Thanks!" Bra replied. She then scanned the lunchroom searching for her hopeful-boyfriend. She saw him sitting with some friends on the other side of the room. He wasn't looking in her direction, but she waved toward him vigorously. He finally noticed her and gave her a cool wave of his hand and a friendly smile. This caused Bra to giggle to herself.

"Isn't he cute" She said dreamily.

" Yeah, he's kinda cute" Pan said.

" Kinda cute?"

"Yeah, he's okay" Pan rebutted.

" Oh I know why you're so apathetic about it, I saw you making goo-goo eyes at that guy in glasses during algebra class!"

It was Pan's turn to blush. "you mean Dern? I – I don't like him! He's a nerd"

Having apparently only heard his name and nothing else, a bespectacled youth a few tables down turned his gaze to Pan and cracked a cocky grin, causing Pan to blush more.

Bra laughed out loud at this development.

"Shut up" Pan said as she buried her face into her arms, too embarrassed to make eye contact.

Bra patted her friend on that back. "It's okay Pan. If its any consolation. You two'd make a cute couple."

"You really think so?" Pan asked, quickly raising her head up with a happy, girlish look on her face.

"Yep!"

" Aww, thanks. I may just have to ask him out. In that case." The both laughed a bit together.

"Listen, Bra. Good luck tonight. I really hope it works out!" Pan said, then Bra nodded in agreement.

"Crap, Pan, we've been so busy talking, we haven't eaten anything!" As if to confirm what she just said, Pan's stomach began growling loudly. They began to wolf their meals down, finishing them no sooner than the lunch bell rang, signaling the kids to go on to 5th period. Pan and Bra hugged and then went on with the rest of the their school day without incident.

Bra was picked up by her brother today and, upon reaching home, was greeted by the sight of both of her parents at the front door. It was unusual to see either one before she entered the house, but both of them together at this time of day was unheard of. Stranger still, they were both smiling.

"Hello honey!" Bulma said cheerily to her daughter

"Uh, hello mom... dad. What's up? Is something going on?"

" Do we need an excuse to say hello to our daughter?" Vegeta said with a slight hint of umbrage.

"No..." Bra said.

"Well, actually we do have something for you." said Bulma. "Here! She reached behind her back and grabbed a brightly wrapped present then presented it to Bra.

"Oh my god, thanks mom!" Bra grabbed the box and excitedly opened it, finding a classy red cocktail dress. 'Oh, it's beautiful! I love it!"

"That dress was mine when I was your age. I just want to say we're proud of you. You've turned out as a smart, beautiful young woman. We want you to have fun tonight."

"Awww, thanks!" Bra said, and then hugged her mother tightly.

"...Also" Vegeta cut in. "I want you to be careful. If that guy does anything to hurt you, kick his ass... or better yet, tell me" Bulma gave Vegeta a cross look and nudged him. "Also, uh, have a good time..."

"Thanks Daddy!" She kissed him on the cheek. "I wouldn't worry, I doubt he could hurt me, even if he wanted to, which he doesn't.

Bra took her dress and went inside. She went to her bathroom and took a quick shower, then went to sit on her bed. She grabbed a bottle of teal nail polish and began to apply it to her recently pedicured toenails She had gotten down to her last two toes when she suddenly felt a deep chill in the air. Looking toward the source of the chill, she noticed that outside her window the sky had gone dark and lighting was flashing erratically. She gingerly walked over to the window to determine what exactly was going on. She looked closely at the sky, quickly ascertaining that whatever was going on, it was not just a freak thunderstorm. Suddenly, a huge beam of light resembling a crack ripped through the sky. Entranced, Bra could only stare at it as it grew wider and wider until it was a disc. Then a very large object fell out from the light and landed right next to Bra's window.

It was a robot, or maybe a cyborg, about 30 feet tall. In the past, it had been known as Dr. Wheelo, but anyone who had seen it then would only barely recognize it now. It's once black metal plating was now white. It had random spikes jutting out in all directions off it's body, and where it's brain was once visible was now just a pulsating soup of liquid color. It turned toward Bra. It's sensors indicated that she was of a similar makeup to the being it searched for, so it quickly reached out with its pincher like hands and grabbed her through the window.

"What the hell, let go of me!"

" I seek Son Goku." the monster spoke in a distorted voice. "He once defeated me, but I have been reborn. My strength has increased tenfold, and my armor is stronger than dwarf-star matter." It reeled Bra in close to it's head. "Where is he, I will have his body!"

Bra felt very afraid at this point. She didn't know Goku all that well, but she knew that he was strong. Much stronger than she'd ever dream to be, maybe even stronger than her father. If this was an enemy of Goku's, she probably wouldn't stand a chance. Still, she wasn't about to give in. She'd go kicking and screaming, hopefully she could hold this thing off until her father or brother got there. Energized with this hope, she slammed her bare foot right onto the mechanical creature's armor. To the surprise of both her and Wheelo, it left a deep foot print.

"What!? Impossible!" Wheelo said, taken aback that his supposedly invincible armor could be hurt by a little girl.

_Maybe he's not so tough after all._ Bra thought to herself. Emboldened, she struck a powerful blow at the mechanical arm holding her, easily severing it and freeing herself.

"No! I'm invincible!" Wheelo said.

_He sure talks a lot. _Bra jumped in the air and delivered a roundhouse kick to the base of Wheelo's head, sending him flying several hundred yards back and crumpling his face plate.

As the creature laid here, liquid bleeding from his crushed face plate, i desperately shouted."No! I won't go back! Not again, I won't!"

Bra ran up to where Wheelo was lying at speeds that even his high tech sensors couldn't comprehend. She picked up his crumpled body and tossed it high into the air.

"I don't know where you came from, but you're going back!" She charged a ball of ki in the palm of her hand and launched it at her enemy, completely obliterating it. She then sat down to breath. This had been her first real battle, and she found it oddly... thrilling, something she did not expect. But it had been a lot easier than she had thought it would be. Could that guy have really challenged Son Goku? Then abruptly the sky went back to normal.

Had Bra been paying closer attention, she might have noticed a shadowy figure watching her on a hill a half mile a way.

"Interesting" it said.

"Bra! Bra!" came a voice that she recognized as her father's " Are you okay? What happened? All I saw was a purple flash and you disappeared"

"Daddy!" she said and hugged him. She noticed her mother and brother racing out toward her. "I'm okay. Some weird robot thing fell out of the sky and attacked me, but I killed it.

"You did? That's great, I'm so proud I..." Vegeta began. " are you sure you're not hurt?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. He seemed pretty weak actually..."

"And you have no idea where it came from?" Bulma questioned.

"No..."

"Are you sure you should go out tonight, what if there are more?" Vegeta nodded his head in agreement.

Bra shook her head. "I don't think so. He wasn't even after me, he wanted Goku. He said something about stealing his body"

"Kakarot? Then what was he doing here?" Vegeta asked. Bra shrugged. Bulma began searching around the area, trying to find a clue as to what had happened. A few feet away, she found a piece of metal plating, perhaps the only surviving piece of the monster. It had a word engraved on it.

"Wheelo? Why does that sound familiar?" Bulma muttered to herself. "Alright Bra, I don't want to ruin you're big night. But if something happens, I want you to call Trunks or your father. Do you understand?"

"Yes mom."

"Alright. You better go get re-cleaned up. Your date is supposed to arrive in a half hour." Bra ran back to the house and took another shower, re-applied her nail polish, and put on her new dress. She picked a pair of dressy red sandals to go with it and went outside where her date just arrived.

"Sheat! I'm glad you made it!"

"Oh sure babe, wouldn't miss this for the world." Bra waved at her family, who were all smiling and waving back except for Vegeta who looked very annoyed, and got into Sheat's car. They drove off

"I'm so excited Sheat! Where are we going?"

"Somewhere special." He replied cryptically. He drove for another 5 minutes and pulled up to the school parking lot.

"Why are we stopping at school?" Bra asked.

"My dad's the principle, so I have keys. I figure we could have a , y'know, private dance in the gym."

Bra turned a bright shade of crimson and giggled. She got out of the car and followed Sheat as he lead her to gymnasium. Upon opening the door to it, Bra realized that they were not alone in the gym at all. There were at least thirty other students, including Monita and her cronies.

"Sh-Sheat... what's going on?" She asked, confused.

Sheat put on a crooked grin. "Isn't obvious? Don't tell me you've never heard of our little hazing tradition. An upperclassman asks out a freshman girl, a real loser freshman girl, and makes her think she's getting a date, but instead she's getting... this." Sheat punctuated by throwing an egg at Bra.

"But we couldn't find a Freshmen as freaky as you, so this time we'll make an exception.

"B-but..." Bra said, starting to break down.

"You don't get it yet freak? Sheat would never go out with some one like you" Monita said. She threw an old tomato at her.

"Take this, rich girl!" Called out a voice she didn't recognize. Then everyone there began pelting her with food of various kinds, while various members of the mob rattled off nasty rumors they heard about her.

Bra began to sob. "Sh-Sheat... why?"

Sheat's reply wasn't verbal, he simply tossed a water balloon at her. It was filled with blue paint, and got all over her dress. Several other members of the mob followed suit with paint-balloons of various colors. Bra covered her eyes, and began to openly weep as she dashed for the door. One of the girls in the mob attempted to stop her, but Bra reflexively twisted the fortunate girl's arm behind her back, causing her to fall on the ground in pain.

She wasn't hurt, but she was crying "Ahhh! Look what that freak did" Before anyone in the mob could react,, Bra was already out of the room and running aimlessly through the halls. She started feeling anger on top of her sadness, and lashed out at the nearest locker, tearing it, and the wall behind it, to shreds. Frightened that she might lose control and do something she would regret, and desperately wishing to leave the school, she ran to the end of the hall and jumped through the window and dashed off into the city, right as she heard the voices of her classmates closing in on her..

Having put a few miles distance between her and her detractors, she found a nearby bench and sat in it, crying deeply into her hands.

After a few minutes of this, she heard a familiar voice that she hadn't heard in years.

"Bra? Bra Briefs? Is that you?" She looked up to see that the voice came from Son Goten, one of Goku's sons. Bra looked up, revealing her her teary eyes.

"Oh my god, why are you crying?" He asked her softly. She simply jumped up from the bench and buried her face in his chest, sobbing deeply.

Goten hugged her gently, trying to comfort the hysterical girl. He lead her back to the bench and sat down with her.

After she mostly stopped crying, Goten asked "Ok, can you tell me what you're crying about?" He noticed that she was wearing a nice looking dress that was now covered in paint.

Bra tried to explain in between sobs. "This – this – boy – he- he... we were about to go out- you – you know like on a date? And – and – it was all a joke! He and his – his friends threw paint and food at me!" After explaining, she started crying again. Goten had no idea what to do or say at this point.

Bra once again calmed down enough to talk. "Is it my fault Goten? Am – Am I a freak? Am I ugly? Why – why doesn't he like me?"

"No! No you're not a freak, you're a beautiful young woman. I don't know what this jerk's problem is, but he's certainly not someone you should waste tears on."

Bra looked at Goten. He was handsome; long hair, tightly muscled body, with a kind, caring face. Bra always had a bit of a crush on him, but he was about 6 or 7 years older than her, so she never tried to tell him. But seeing him now, as he tried his best to comfort him, she felt like her feelings were growing beyond a school girl crush. She had to figure out a way to let him know... but not tonight.

"C'mon! I'll buy you a burger and shake!" Goten said. Bra dried the final tears from her eyes and put on a smile.

"O-ok" She said shyly. He took her to a nearby fast food joint and bought her some food. After she finished her meal, she felt a great weariness overtake her and she layed her head down, thinking she just needed a moment's rest. But she fell into a deep sleep.

"Bra? Bra?" Goten tried halfheartedly to wake her. "Poor girl. I'll get you home" He picked her up, wrapped her arms around his neck and carried her out of the restaurant. He looked around to make sure no one was looking and took to the sky with the still sleeping Bra still on her back. He flew her back to her house where Vegeta and Bulma were up waiting.

"Goten? Why are you here? Bulma inquired. "And whats wrong with Bra, is she hurt?" She began to panic.

Goten just shook his head. "I was in town on my way to my new apartment when I happened by her. She was crying heavily. From what she told me, I think a boy and his group gave her some trouble. Nothing physical, but you could see how much it hurt in her eyes." Goten went silent for a few second. Bulma looked painfully at her daughter. Vegeta began to fume.

"That... That little bastard. How dare he hurt my daughter. I'll smash him into paste!" Vegeta was about to fly off.

"Whoa! Hold on!" Goten said as he held the angry Saiyan prince back. "You can't just kill him! Think before you do something you regret!"

Vegeta struggeld against the younger man's grip for a few seconds, but eventually saw the wisdom in his words. He grew silent and went inside.

Bulma turned toward Goten. "Thanks for taking care of her."

"It's nothin'" Goten said.

Bulma nudged her daughter. "Come on sweetie, wake up! Let's get you in bed!"

"Mama... " Bra said groggily. Her eyes met Goten's for just a second before he waved in her direction.

"Well I need to go now... let me know if you need anything else." Goten said and then flew off.

"Mom, your dress, I ruined it.."

"Shhh. No honey, this isn't your fault. This isn't your fault at all. Don't worry about it, I can get it cleaned. I'm sorry that boy you went with was such a terrible person" Bulma held her daughter close, and Bra realized that her mother was crying.

"Mom..." She said. "Even though that date was... bust... I think I still was able to have a good time tonight." She did her best to smile at her mother.

"Yeah." Her mother shot a smile back. "Now you better get to bed. Things will look even better in the morning." Bra complied. She went into her room, took off her messy dress, kicked off her sandals, jumped onto her bed and fell into a deep sleep where she dreamed about how she wanted the future to go.


	3. Won't Give In

_Well, now we know how Bra developed her crush on Goten, now lets see how she deals with it. Some slightly harsher language here..._

Bra lazily woke up the next morning, having got home after midnight. She groggily looked up at her alarm clock and realized that it was almost ten o'clock, meaning she was very much late for school. She didn't know if she cared or not. She laid her head back on the pillow, but withdrew it when she noticed it was wet. Evidently she'd been crying in her sleep. She sat up in her bed and slowly began to piece together what had happened last night. It had been a painful experience, and she wasn't exactly sure why it had happened, but she suspected that it might be a combination of jealousy over her affluent life style and rumors about exactly why she had left her old school.

_So cruel._ She thought to herself. She wondered if she could even deal with going back to that school. Then she thought about Goten...

"That's it!" She said aloud to no one in particular. "I'm not gonna let those jerks rule the way I live!" After this affirmation, she slapped herself. She got out of her bed and ran over to her dresser. She did not want to dress as flashy as she had been, so she picked out a plain t-shirt which she wore under a red hoodie, which she accompanied with a pair of gray skinny jeans and teal colored converse-like shoes without any socks. She rushed out of her room to find her mother, who was sitting in the dining room reading a newspaper.

"Mom!" Bra said to her urgently .

" Oh, good morning sweetheart! I didn't expect you up yet..."

"Why didn't you wake me up? I'm late for school."

"Honey, you had a really rough night. I think it's understandable that you might need a day or two to recover. I can't imagine how I would have reacted to that at your age. I called the school and told them you were sick. I'm also having the whole incident looked into, those kids can't be allowed to get away with treating anyone that way."

"Mom... I'm okay Mom. I want to go to school today. "

"You sure?"

"Mom, these... they're not worth crying over. I'm not going to let them win."

" Honey..."

"Mom, I'm totally over it..." She clearly wasn't, at least not yet. Her hood was on and seemed to be a way to hide her face, and her eyes still looked very hurt. Still, Bulma had to admit she seemed to be taking it remarkably well. Maybe she was right?

"Well, if you're sure you want to go..."

"Thanks mom" Bra replied sweetly and gave her a soft hug.

"Trunks is already gone, so I guess i'll have to take you."

"Ok!" Bra said and walked outside to get in the hover car

"God forbid Vegeta do any driving" Bulma muttered under her breath.

Bulma drove her daughter to the front of the school just in time for her to make it to her 3rd period algebra class.

"Thanks again Mom!" Bra said, sounding convincingly cheery.

"Have a good day Bra." Bulma replied as Bra rushed to make it in time. Once she was sure Bra was out of sight, she pulled her car over into the parking lot and got out her cellphone.

After a few seconds of ringing... "Hello, Goten?"

"Bulma? Is that you? Since when do you have my number."

"Er, that's not important right now..."

"I guess. So, What's up? Is it about Bra?"

"Yeah. She went back to school today."

" So soon? She's pretty tough."

"Yeah, or at least acting it. I'm still pretty worried. If it's not too much trouble, do you think you could visit her at school and make sure she's alright? She seemed to respond pretty well when to you when you found her last night."

"Well, I am going to be in the area, so I guess I could..."

"Oh, thank you! You're so sweet, you're certainly your father's son!"

Goten responded by laughing bashfully. They said their goodbyes and hung up.

Meanwhile, Bra was walking toward her algebra class, finding that she was actually slightly early for that class. By sheer luck, she happened upon Pan heading for the same class.

"Pan!" Bra called out, causing the younger girl to turn around.

"Bra?" She replied upon seeing her. She hadn't seen Bra in that outfit in years. Pan then got teary eyed and rushed over and hugged her friend tightly.

"Oh, Bra. Goten told me everything that happened. I'm so sorry!"

"It's okay Pan, I'm over it..." Bra said, mostly to convince herself. Bra apparently had awful timing, because before either her or Pan could continue their conversation, a familiar mocking voice came out at Bra from behind. It was Sheat.

"Well, well, well... You didn't show this morning, I guess we figured you got the message, we don't want you here rich girl!". Bra said nothing, just glared at him eyes blazing with anger she didn't even know she had. Pan was fuming, and seemed even angrier than her friend. After a few seconds, Bra turned away and pulled her hoodie tighter over her head and tried walking off, whispering to Pan that the young man wasn't worth it. Obviously annoyed that he was being ignored, Sheat started to walk towards Bra and grabbed her by the shoulder.

"Hey! Don't walk off while I'm talking to you, bitch!" In response, Bra closed her eyes tightly and was about to walk away even quicker, but Pan wasn't having any of it. For her, putting his hands on her best friend and calling her a bitch was the last straw. She grabbed Sheat's hand and pulled it behind him forcing the young man away from her friend. When he was about to put up some resistance, Pan simply kicked him in both shins, leaving him on the ground moaning. It was an incredibly weak kick by her standards, it didn't even fracture any of his bones, but it was painful enough that he couldn't move.

"Who's the bitch now?" Pan shouted at the downed boy. The sight of a five foot two sophomore girl easily taking down an over six foot senior was enough to get several kids in the hall laughing at him, even before she insulted him. Even Bra had to stifle a laugh. "If you ever come near her again, you'll be in traction for a month, do I make myself clear asshole?!" Sheat could only manage a moan. Nearby Monita, apparently in the on-again phase of their relationship shrieked at the sight before her and quickly , with the help of two of her friends, helped him to his feet and off towards the nurse's office.

Bra grabbed Pan by the wrist and pulled her into the class room. Pan thought that she had probably made Bra pretty mad, making a scene like that. She was quite surprised then when Bra gave her a warm embrace.

"Thanks Pan... you kept me from doing something I would have regretted." Pan just scratched the back of her head and gave off a goofy grin.

"Aww it was nothin' " . As the teacher asked the class to take their seats, Bra whispered into her friend's ear.

"I've got something important to tell you at lunch...".

The next two periods seemed to fly by. Finally, the two girls met up at their usual lunch table.

"So what's this big secret?" Pan asked her friend, then grabbed up her soda can and took a swig.

"Uhh..." Bra said, as she began to blush and twiddle her fingers.

"So its about a guy eh? You meet someone new? Boy, you bounce back fast!" Pan took another swig.

Feeling like she was about to burst, she shouted "I'm in love with Goten!". This prompted Pan to spew a fountain of cola out of her mouth.

Bra gave her a disbelieving look, and she could feel those around her doing the same. "uhhhh... that surprising, huh?"

"Nah" Pan said sheepishly. "I just always wanted to do that."

"Uhhh..."

"Yeah, you've always liked Goten. I guess you just kinda forgot about him when he moved away when you were in middle school."

"You talk to him a lot. Do – do you know if he – he has a girlfriend?"

" Huh. Well he did have one. I don't think it worked out though. Yeah, I think they broke up a couple of weeks ago."

"Well... do you think its possible that... he likes me?" She blushed even redder, immediately regretting asking the question and buried her face in her arms.

"Uh, well I guess its possible that he could... but I think you need to find a way to be around him more often. Y'know, get him to like you?"

"Well..." Bra started. " I do sorta have a plan..."

"Yeah?" Then Pan's expression changed. "Wait, no, don't tell me" She whispered.

Bra was confused. "Huh?"

"Behind you!"

Bra wheeled around to see that, much to her surprise, Goten himself was approaching them. Her heart started beating out of her chest.

"Hi Bra!" he said and gave her a wave. He sat down beside her.

"Oh... Hi Goten." She replied.

"Uncle Goten, what are you doing here?" Pan inquired.

"Well, I'm just checking up on Bra here." He turned to the blushing girl. "Are you alright?"

"Y-yeah, I'm fine. Thanks for asking" She said. Inside she was thinking. _He's so sweet._

"You look a little red..." He said. "Did the guy that did it give you any more trouble?"

"Oh he tried." Pan blurted. "But I took care of that."

"I see... Well, you do seem to be feeling better" He noticed that Bra was smiling. "Listen, I have to go, but if you need anything..." He got out a piece of paper and pen he had in his pocket and wrote down his cell number. "Just call me."

"Okay..." She said. Goten started to walk out of the lunch room. "Goten! Wait!" She pleaded, causing him to turn around. "Uh, I was thinking... do you think you could train me? To fight?"

Goten was genuinely surprised. "I guess I could. But wouldn't your dad want to be the one who trains you?"

"Uh, I'm kind of wanting to train with someone my own age..."

"Huh." Goten mused. After a few seconds, he agreed."Well, okay. Just text me tonight and we'll work out a schedule. "

" 'Kay" she said. Then Goten walked out of the lunch room for real and Bra sat back onto the bench, now feeling very exhausted.

"Training? You sly dog you!" Pan congratulated, then slapped her friend on the back.

" I'm actually kind of nervous about that part too." Bra admitted.

" You're a Saiyan too, aren't ya? Who knows, you might even like it!" Just a few days earlier, she would have laughed at that suggestion, but she still remembered how exhilarating the fight with Dr. Wheelo had been. Besides, being with Goten would no doubt be enjoyable no matter what it was.

"And don't worry about Goten, once he sees how great you are, I'm sure he'll come around!"

Bra let out a happy sigh and lost herself in her thoughts, while Pan resumed eating.

When Bra got home, she rushed over to her room and put her favorite outfit on again. While on the way home, she had a text conversation with Goten, and they would have their first training session in about an hour. After getting dressed and primped, she went to the den to find her parents arelaxing.

"There you are!" Said Bulma. "You seemed lost in your phone today, how'd your day go?"

"It was great!" Bra exclaimed, sporting a very genuine smile.

"Glad to hear it." Before Bra could cut in, Bulma remembered something. "Oh, before I forget: I've done some research into that metal plate we found yesterday. Wheelo refers to one Dr. Wheelo, a scientist from over 75 years ago. He made a breakthrough when he discovered how to transfer a person's brain to a robotic body."

"Okay..." Bra replied.

"Anyway, he became very ill and had this operation on his own brain. He made a robotic body, using similar technology that Gero would later use to make his androids, and transferred into it. Unfortunately for him, he became trapped in his own lab when a glacier fell on it before he could fully start up his new body."

"So your saying he thawed out and came out looking for Goku, so he could transfer his mind again into a living body?"

"I initially thought that, but your father went to investigate and he found that Wheelo was still trapped in the ice. Plus, the metal that makes up the plate is much more sophisticated than what he would have had access to. Not to mention we have no explanation for the weird sky you saw. Vegeta says he saw you disappear in thin air. So, while we have more information, we're really no closer to understanding what happened than we were.

"I see." Bra said, hoping to move on to what she came to say. "Mom, dad, I've got something to tell you." Her parents both looked at her intently. "I've decided to start training. I want to know how to fight." Upon hearing this, Vegeta's face lit up in a way Bra hadn't seen in years.

"That's great Bra!" He said as he went over to her and clasped her hands. "I've been waiting for this moment for years,lets get started right away."

"Uh, dad..." She said with a hint of regret. "I've already got a trainer."

"What..." Vegeta said.

" I'm training with Goten dad. He's coming over in about 15 minutes, and we're gonna do this for 3 days a week."

"Bu- but... Kakarot's kid?" Vegeta started, before Bulma pushed in.

"That's great honey! Just make sure not to fall behind in school"

"But – but!" Vegeta said as his face fell. Dejected and defeated, he hung his head a walked out of the room, muttering something under his breath of about darkness, his old friend.

"Eh, don't worry about him, I'll take care of it" Bulma said.

"Thanks mom! Bye!" Bra said, and then ran outside to wait for Goten.

Bulma walked in to the next room and found Vegeta sitting in the corner with the lights out.

"Oh come on, you big baby, cheer up!" Bulma said to her sullen husband. " You know she still loves you..."

"Why would she rather train with that boy than her own father?"

"You really don't get it?" Bulma said. Vegeta just looked at her like she was insane. "She likes him!"

"What? No way!" Vegeta retorted. "What makes you think that?"

"She's always liked him, don't you remember when she was 6 and he was twelve, and she ambushed him and hugged him around the legs and told him to marry her?"

"Bah! Words of a child"

"Whatever, just trust me okay? A mother knows." Vegeta was about to say something else when Bulma stopped him with an open mouthed kiss. Trunks and Bra were out, and they could finally be alone. Vegeta was feeling better already.

Outside, Bra was just watching Goten walk up to her house.

"Goten, hey!" She said and waved at him. She ran up beside him with her hands behind her back.

"Hi Bra! Are you ready to start training?"

Bra nodded energetically. "So, where are we going?" She asked.

"Somewhere where we have a lot of open space and no one will get hurt." Bra nodded once again in agreement. "Follow me." He said as he rocketed into the sky. Bra was a little rusty with flying, but followed suit. Bra didn't have any idea how this would turn out, but she was excited to see.


	4. The Training

_Bra's first training session with Goten. More action this time around_

Bra flew closely behind Goten as they soared off in the direction of a distant desert. While on the wing, she took the time to analyze her new-found trainer. He was wearing a similar orange Gi to the one his father and brother often wore, although it bore no symbol. He had let his hair grow out a bit. She vaguely remembered that he used to have a hairstyle nearly identical to that of his father, but that he changed it so as not to be confused for him. Now it was even longer, she liked that. Her musings were cut short as he motioned for her to come in for a landing. The two touched down in an arid area filled with intricate rock formations.

"Alright, we're here. Are you ready to start?" Goten asked. Bra looked around at her surroundings. The rock formations were quite pretty, but everything was drab. The atmosphere was hot and oppressive, and the lack of almost any moisture in made her instantly thirsty. And yet, something in her Saiyan blood made her feel almost at home, while still uncomfortable.

"Okay..." She said quietly. "Yeah, sure, I'm ready. But where are we."

"The name of the desert escapes me, but according to my dad, this is where he fought yours." He replied, with a mild sense of awe in his voice. From the way Bra started reassessing the area, Goten thought that she might be feeling something similar.

"Okay then, let's begin!" He said as he took on a focused pose.

"Wait!" Bra stalled.

"What? Something wrong?"

"Uhh..." Bra started, blushing as she did. "Aren't you supposed to … take off your shirt before you train?"

"Huh?" Goten said, giving her a confused look.

"Well... Trunks and dad take their shirts off when they start training..."

"Yeah... I guess they do..." Goten said as he paused to think about it.

"Ha, never mind. Here I go running my mouth again!" She started playing with her hair and laughing nervously. "Lets just get started." She said, trying to change the awkward subject.

"Alrighty then..." He resumed his pose. Bra felt a little disappointed but did the same.

"Now, the first thing is, I'm gonna see how well you focus your ki." Goten demonstrated, singing out ripples of energy from his body. He caused this energy to draw in to him and form a close fitting, bluish aura. His face looked stern, but calm.

"I'll give it a shot..." Bra said. It had been years since she had attempted anything like this. She gave a forceful shout, and caused the ki in her body to radiate out. The ground around her started shaking and loose pebbles began floating around, as if released from the restraints of gravity. Bra began to try to reel the energy back in, but found that much more difficult than letting it out. She focused and shouted as she strained against the force of her own power, but found that she just couldn't convert it into a controllable aura.

Goten quickly moved up next to her. "Here, let me help you." He said as he smiled warmly. He clasped both of her hands in his. Bra's heart rate skyrocketed, causing waves of ki to lash out behind her.

"Just try to calm down." Goten said. "Feel my aura. Try to emulate that feeling, and you'll be able to control it"

"Oh – Okay." Bra said and started breathing slower and deeper. She felt Goten's ki radiate over her, and she found it much easier to find the proper frequency. She was then able to pull in the raging torrent of blue-green energy around her and form a stable aura.

" Now you got it!" Goten praised as he let go of her hands. Bra's aura wobbled a bit, but she quickly regained control.

"S-sorry about that, it's been so long, I'd forgotten how..."

"It's okay!" He said, and smiled at her again, causing her to blush and look off to the side. Goten didn't seem to notice. " How much training have you had anyway? You seem to know some stuff anyway."

"Well, my dad never forced me to train like my brother. But when I was little, he did make me do a little training, just so I could control my own strength. He didn't want me busting up a city block just by stomping down too hard. "

"I see." Goten said.

"Well... I know how to fly, and I can shoot off a few of those energy blast thingies" She gave him a cute smile.

" What made you decide to start training now?" He asked

" Oh..." Bra hadn't really thought up an excuse, and she certainly wasn't ready to confess yet. "Ah, y'know... that whole thing at school. That destroyed my confidence. I want it back." Bra felt a short bit of sadness as she said that. It wasn't an excuse, it was the truth, or at least part of it. And she was still hurting.

"Well then I think this is a great idea!" Goten actually looked excited now.

"Yeah!" Bra enthused.

"Since you know the basics , how about a quick sparring session?"

"Um, I guess? Sure, let's give it a try!" She was actually nervous, she didn't think they'd get to this point so soon.

They both walked to the center of a clearing and then bowed respectfully to each other. They then took on fighting stances, although in Bra's case it was mainly a mock up of what she remembered as a little girl and the stances she'd seen Trunks and Vegeta take.

"Alright Bra, I want to to take a few shots at me."

"Are – are you sure?" She asked.

"Yeah, I want to get a gauge on your power level."

"Okay then... here I come!" She lunged forward at him. She delivered three punches towards his face. They were quite potent blows, but, at least to Goten, they were sloppy and fairly slow, and he easily dodged them all.

"Keep it up!" He encouraged. Her Saiyan blood pumping, she happily complied. She leaned in toward him and performed a roundhouse kick, with more intensity and speed than her punches. Instead of dodging this one, Goten blocked it with his knee and back-flipped away.

"Better!" He shouted. Seeing that she was clearly not fighting on the same plane he was, she instinctively tightened her stance and began to fight with more fury, pouring punches on at high speed. Much to his surprise, Goten was actually finding himself pinned by this new assault.

_She's sloppy, but strong_. He noted. Bra continued on the attack, feeling the need to land at least one blow on her new teacher. She finally managed to graze him slightly across his cheek, causing him to take up a more serious defensive stance. He was now actively parrying most of her blows instead of dodging or redirecting them. In the intensity of the moment, his instincts took over, and, seeing Bra leave an opening, he unintentionally delivered a hard blow directly into her stomach, causing her to fly backwards. Goten immediately flipped out

" Oh my god, Bra!" He shouted as he ran over to his student who was doubled over on the ground. He was thinking many things as he ran toward her, including guilt over what he had just done, worrying over her safety, and sheer terror over what Vegeta might do to him if he'd injured her. 'Are you okay?" He asked frantically. To his surprise, she was already getting back on her feet, although she was still clutching her stomach and breathing heavy.

"I'm – I'm okay..." She said. She then started laughing in a manner very reminiscent of her father.. It hurt like nothing she'd ever felt, but somehow, in this moment in the heat of the fight, she just felt excited. " Lets keep going!" She shouted as she jumped toward Goten.

"Hey, wait a minute, hold up-" He started to say. He was stopped mid-sentence by having to dodge several punches from the younger girl in front of him.

"Just – Just a min-" He was once again cut off, this time by a fist landing directly on his face. He was rocketed backwards and crashed into a rock formation behind him, totaling it.

Bra stopped immediately and gasped. "Goten!" She shouted. She was about to go over and check on him, but he was already on his feet, and showed up by her side before she could react.

"Take it easy!" He said to her. He didn't seem to be injured in any meaningful way.

"Sorry." She said sheepishly. "Guess I got caught up in the heat of the moment..." She said.

"Oh, it's okay. I'm really impressed!" Hearing this caused Bra's face to light up.

"Really?" She asked, sounding like a kid on Christmas.

"You're very strong. I guess it's cause you're dad was a lot stronger when he had you than when he had Trunks, but your power level is near mine, and you've barely trained.."

Bra covered her mouth in shock.

"That said, you have a lot of training to do, all that power won't do you any good in a fight if you can't use it properly."

"Oh."

"Now, one more thing I want to test out is your energy blasts." he jumped back several hundred yards. " Shoot one at me!" He shouted.

Bra nodded and charged a blast up for a fraction of a second and then unleashed it toward Goten, who deftly deflected it to the side.

" Alright, again!" He said. But Bra wanted to impress him again, so she shouted something back.

"Actually, I want to show you something."

"Oh?" Goten asked.

"Yeah, just fly up high in the air!" She explained. Goten complied.

"What have you got for me?"

"Well, I wasn't entirely honest with you. Dad did teach me one technique. He said it was a family tradition to pass this one down and so he made sure I knew how to do it."

Goten looked intrigued.

"Here goes nothing!" She said as she brought her hands behind herself and curled her fingers, causing a large orb of energy to form.

"What the hell is that?" Goten softly asked himself, thinking it looked uneasily like a Kamehameha wave. But she couldn't do that, could she?

After a few instants of charging, she shouted. "Galick Gun!" and shot a large teal colored (as opposed to Vegeta's magenta colored version) beam of energy up toward Goten.

"Oh shit!" Goten said, recognizing the technique now. He'd never seen it, but his dad had described it to him. The blast was definitely too strong for him to deal with as he was. So, over the space of an instant, he gave a mighty shout, causing the ki in his body to explode. His hair stood up and turned a bright gold sheen and his aura became one of golden flame. He was now a Super Saiyan. With a simple sweep of his hand, he completely stopped Bra's Galick Gun in its tracks.

"No way..." Bra whispered. It was the most powerful thing she could muster, and he swatted it away like a fly. She looked up at the golden haired god that hovered before her. His demeanor changed slightly, his face was brimming with confidence and he had an almost arrogant smirk. She'd seen Super Saiyans before, she'd even seen Goten as one several times. But seeing him now, with the setting sun behind his back, having just easily countered her ace in the hole, she'd never seen something so striking .

Goten landed in front of her and released his Super Saiyan form, returning to normal.

"Phew!" He sighed. "Bra, that was amazing!"

"It was? But you stopped it so easily!"

"True, but I had to transform first. Although, now that I think of it, if I hadn't transformed, I would have been seriously injured."

"Sorry... Guess I just wasn't thinking again" Bra apologized again, hanging her head slightly.

"Hey, it's okay, no harm done. And you even thought to aim away from the Earth. "

"Well... yeah." She said.

"I really underestimated you, I didn't think ya had it in you." He paused for a second. "Ok, lets have another quick sparring session and call it a day!"

"Lets do it." Bra said.

Goten abruptly took off the shirt of his gi, evidently finding it too hot to wear.

_Hello sailor! _Bra thought as she was immediately captivated by the sight of her shirtless sensei. Unfortunately for her, this left her completely open when Goten began his assault. She didn't react until too late and was hit squarely on the shoulder by a punch and sent careening backwards into another rock formation.

"Ow." She said

"You okay?" Goten asked.

"Yeah yeah..." Bra replied as she began to get back on her feet.

"what happened back there? you seemed distracted."

Bra's face turned red with embarrassment. "I guess I'm just a bit tired. That Galick Gun takes a lot of energy."

"Do you wanna stop now, or keep going?"

"I think we can keep going, I just-" She started to yawn. "Well, maybe we could just call it a day..." She said as she started rubbing her eyes.

Goten yawned too, and then laughed. "Lets get you home." Then they both took to the skies. In their tired state, they went a little slower than usual, and they made it back to Bra's house in about 45 minutes.

After they landed, Goten looked Bra over to make sure she wasn't injured in any way. He noticed that her outfit was ruined. Her top was torn a little bit, her skirt had several holes, and one boot was just completely gone with the other one banged up pretty badly.

Goten looked at her sympathetically. "Sorry about your outfit." He said.

"Oh, these old rags?" She said as she scratched the back of her head and started to force a laugh. "I've got a million of 'em anyway." The last part was true. Still, next time she'd have to wear more appropriate clothing.

"Goten..." She said slowly.

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for training me." She said and, gathering up all her nerve, hugged him, only slightly disappointed that he put his shirt back on.

" Ha, it's nothing" He replied, returning the hug. Bra probably held on for just a little too long, but finally let go and started to walk up to the front door, her heart doing backflips.

"Oh, one more thing." Bra said. "Do you think you could teach me to..."

"Yes?"

"Go Super Saiyan...?"

"Huh..." Goten said. The idea of a female Super Saiyan had honestly never crossed his mind, and now he was curious. "We could give it a try. Now, you need to get some rest, see you in a few days." He waved at her and flew off, leaving the girl to practically swoon.

"Did you have fun Bra?" Her mom's voice rung out behind her, causing her to jump.

"Mom!" She said, annoyed. "Don't do that!"

"Sorry!" Bulma said, chuckling.

"But, yeah. I had a great time! He's really strong, and a great teacher."

"And pretty handsome too." Bulma added.

"M-mom!" Bra said as she blushed. She immediately started to stumble inside, going to her room to hide her embarrassment. Bulma just stayed where she was, chuckling.

Bra did about an hour's worth of homework and then went to bed with sweet dreams.


	5. Just a thunderstorm

_Thanks to all the readers, I hope to keep making this story interesting. This chapter has some violence and gore in it, but its not really any worse than the tv show, or perhaps a Resident Evil game. _

Bra felt sore as she walked into school the next day. All her muscles ached, and she felt stiff as a board. She also had minor, but noticeable, bruises on her stomach and shoulder, which were thankfully covered up by her hoodie. She had on basically the same outfit as yesterday, but different shoes

_Oh god._ She though as she trudged into the school building. Today would be a trial indeed, but it was more than worth it. Thinking back on the night before, she immediately perked up. She was excited the train again, and not just to see Goten. Something just felt... right about training, like something buried in her soul had awakened. Her thoughts were interrupted by someone grabbing her by the shoulders and shouting in her ears.

"Hello Bra!"

"Ahhh!" Bra screamed, practically jumping out of his skin. It took her to realize it was Pan.

"Good morning!" Pan replied with great over-exuberance.

"Don't do that!" Bra said as she cut her breath.

"Sooooo..." Pan started. "How did it go?"

"Oh, it was so much fun!" Bra said promptly. "I feel so much stronger already." And she was a bit stronger, though she'd need to rest her muscles a bit more to fully realize that,

"Yeah, yeah." Pan dismissed. She would normally be really excited about this, but she was actually jealous of her uncle and wanted to train with her best friend herself. Still, she was really hoping that Bra and Goten might get together. "I want to know about you and Goten!"

Bra giggled nervously. " Oh, well I think I'm making some real progress. He said he was really impressed with my performance, and on just the first time too."

"That's great. So... did you tell him you like him yet?" She already knew the answer, but wanted to ask anyway.

"Oh god no..." Bra said, just the thought of doing so made her blush. "He wouldn't want me... at least not yet."

"Don't be silly, you're great!" Said Pan, hoping to cheer her friend up.

"Eh..." Bra said.

Before any more compliment fishing could occur, the two teens were greeted by the unfortunate sight of Sheat and a rotund , balding man with coke bottle glasses walking towards them at an awkwardly slow pace.

"Who's tubby? Bra whispered.

"He's the principal." Pan replied

"Oh..."

"And Sheat's dad." Pan continued.

"Huh, so he wasn't lying about that..."

Pan and Bra could hear that Sheat was also whispering, but at a significantly higher volume.

"There she is, dad, there's the one who assaulted me." He said, pointing toward Pan. "And that's the girl she was with!"

"I don't even believe this jackass..." Bra growled under her breath. She didn't even notice that her hair was starting to defy gravity.

"Excuse me ladies, but my son here has informed me that one of you assaulted him. Now, I don't want to jump to any conclusions, and I want to get the whole story. Now, first off, I'd like to ask you two your names, I haven't been here all that long and I'm still trying to memorize my students."

"Uh, ok" Pan started. "I'm Son Pan"

"And I'm Bra Briefs."

"Hmm, Son Pan, Bra Briefs... now where have I heard those names..." The befuddled principal began to absentmindedly pace the hall, muttering to himself and massaging his forehead with his left hand, leaving the two girls to stare at him, very confused.

Sheat took this opportunity to approach the girls himself.

"All right freaks, you've had it now! You bitches are gonna be out of here so fast, your heads'll spin!"

For a few seconds, the pair just glared at the ill-tempered young man, before Bra just broke out into a laugh.

"What's so damn funny? Your ass is grass!" Sheat shouted, clearly annoyed.

"Aww, did the big senior man got his ass kicked by a sophomore girl? Better run to tell daddy!" Bra mocked him while wearing a sadistic smile that would make her father proud.

" What!?" The boy was fuming now, he raised his fist in the air, as if he was about to try and hit Bra. "You little slut!" Bra just continued smiling at him. Before Sheat could do something that might land him in traction, he heard his father's loud exclamation.

"Good god!' he shouted. He ran over to the girls.

"Uh, I'm terribly sorry for the inconvenience ladies. My son must have made a mistake!"

"What? Pa, this girl about broke my shins, she-" He was interrupted by his father slapping him on the back of the head.

"Ow, what the hell?" His father abruptly pulled him off to the side and started to loudly whisper to him.

"Do you know who those girls are? That's the granddaughter of Hercule Satan and an heiress to Capsule Corp!"

"So? Are we gonna give them special treatment just because they're rich?"

He'd barely finished this sentence when his dad answered him. "Yes! Now go over and apologize!"

"But I didn't do any-" The principal slapped him again. "Okay, okay!" The boy finally agreed and the two walked over to the very bemused girls. "Uh I'm sorry I made you kick me in the shins... I guess."

"Feh, I'm sorry I had to dirty my shoes on you." Pan replied.

Sheat's eyes blazed with anger, but he couldn't do anything about it.

"Right, then, well I certainly hope there are no hard feelings?"

"Well I..." Bra began

"Excellent! Now move along, class starts in 4 minutes." He then grabbed Sheat by the ear and pull him toward the direction of his office.

"Ow! This ain't over!" he muttered.

Bra and Pan laughed for a solid minute, and then headed on to go to class. Pan affectionately slapped her friend on the back

"Ow! Jeeze, easy, I'm really sore!"

"Oh, sorry..."

They then awkwardly split up and went to their respective classes. Time passed slower for Bra, but for Pan, it felt like the day was flying. Finally, it came time for lunch break. Bra and Pan met around Pan's locker so they could walk to the lunchroom together. Bra used this time to try and keep Pan up to speed on what was going on in algebra class.

"Waaaaay too many X's and Y's for my taste." Pan finally admitted.

"Well you have to learn it for now, you'd better start cracking down, or you'll get behind, and then I won't-" Bra 's words stopped short as her glance fell on a window.

" I know, I know." Pan said. " Hey, what's wrong?" She noticed that Bra had stopped walking and seemed to be fixated on the sky outside. Pan glanced out. "H-holy..." She said, startled. The sky was filled with the most violent lightning she'd ever seen and the sky was starting to crack.

"Not again!" Bra said.

"Again!?"

"Hang on Pan, this is gonna be bad." As if on cue, a huge bolt of lightning lanced down and struck the school right on the outside of the lunch room, obliterating a whole wall. The students that were both uninjured and still lucid began making mad dashes for the nearest exit and pandemonium broke out. All the while, smaller bolts of lightning started to strike the school and buildings near by at random.

"Bra! What the hell's going on?" Pan shouted over the din.

" I – I don't know. Last time something like this happened, I had to fight a frickin' robot." Out of the blue, a lightning bolt arced and squarely struck Bra. It didn't damage her in any way, but for 2 whole seconds her entire field of vision was consumed by an eerie purple light. When her eyes cleared, she immediately noticed that something wasn't right. She wheeled around to find her friend, but only saw a vaguely human shaped figure that appeared to be made out of TV static. It resembled Pan in size, but had no features and let off a terrible buzzing sound as it seemed to flicker in and out of existence. All the while it stood their motionless.

"Pan? Pan? Pan!" Bra started desperately shouting, but to no avail. She looked around and noticed that all the people in the lunch room where in a similar state. Feeling very much alone now and very cold, she sat down and began to tremble incessantly. She had just about decided to get up and try to figure out what was going on when she was blind sighted by a strange looking creature that punched her square in the face, sending her flying through a wall. The punch didn't really hurt, but it surprised her a great deal and stunned her. Gathering her wits, she looked to the place where she was standing before, and saw the creature, along with 3 others waiting there for her. One was a giant of a man with a dim look on his face. One, the one that had punched her, looked like some kind of humanoid lizard or snake. One of them would have looked fairly normal, but his skin color was clearly inhuman. The last one, clearly the strongest by a country mile, looked like a demon, with a brain-like head with horns jutting out of the sides. This would have been weird enough, but their appearances just seemed off. They were covered with open, puss filled sores, they were bleeding out of their mouths and eyes., and their skin seemed to be decaying. The whites of their eyes were now brown and they red irises. They carried themselves in a very bizarre fashion, and they walked like they had broken necks. Looking closely, she could see something writhing underneath their skin, letting out a barely audible shriek. Bra turned her head and vomited.

' F- EeelL the poWEEEr" The demonic looking one said, his voice heavily distorted, sounding like 3 or 4 other, very different sounding voices were speaking in unison from inside him. "of the GINYU FORCE!"

Ginyu Force. That was a name Bra knew from the stories her dad used to tell her. They were a force of intergalactic mercenaries that served under Freeza. But her dad had killed them (with some help from Goku of course) and she had no idea what they were doing here. They had 5 members too, but the short one seemed to be missing...

In unison, the Ginyu Force lunged at her, causing Bra to panic for a quick second. They had her surrounded and were laying heavy blows on her, but they didn't seem to be doing any real damage to her. Still, they were far stronger than Wheelo had been. Deciding that she just wasn't going to put up with this anymore, she kicked forward heavily, landing a powerful blow on the one who had been called Jeice, disemboweling him. The other members of the Force scattered. The blood on her sneaker started to burn her foot, apparently being acidic. It wasn't enough to damage her skin, but it was quite painful so she kicked it off and watched it dissolve.

Much to Bra's chagrin, Jeice didn't seem to die from this wound. Instead he began to roar incoherently and tore open the should-be fatal wound wider. Out of his stomach cavity, spider-like arms began to jut out and she could see the face of something that resembled an annelid worm. She repressed the urge to vomit again, as the crazed creature before her began to turn toward her at full tilt. Bra reacted quickly by shooting a ki blast at the once-mercenary, which engulfed and deleted him completely. She was going to have to do something similar to the other Ginyus, she didn't want any more acid on her.

Showing that they still had some tactical abilities left, the ones called Recoome and Burter took advantage of the young Saiyan's distraction and rushed her, grabbing her by her arms and legs and pulling them behind her. Ordinarily, she could break out of their hold easily. But at this point she was too distracted and frightened to focus her ki properly, and on top of that was still stiff and tired from the night before, so she just couldn't break free. Then Ginyu, their purplish leader, came into view, and she instantly understood just what was going to happen. Vegeta had told her of Ginyu's ability to switch bodies, but she just couldn't remember how he did it.

Ginyu stared directly into the frightened girl's eyes, and suddenly she was paralyzed.

"Change NOW!" Ginyu said in a suddenly demonic voice as a beam shot out of his mouth. Bra only had a few seconds to react, and so she thought back to Goten. She wanted to see him again, she didn't want to go like this... She remembered the feeling of his hands in hers helping her gain control of her ki. It was worth a try. Forcing herself to calm down, she focused all the Ki in her body around her, just like she did yesterday. This gave her enough strength to break through the paralysis, and she shoved Recoome into the body change beam. Before any of the Ginyus had any time to react to this, Bra took her now free arm and slammed her fist right into Burter's head, crushing his skull without spilling any blood.

"All right, now I'm mad!" Bra said as she stepped back. She charged up a much larger beam than before and fired it at the two remaining Ginyu Force members (as well as Burter's corpse), evaporating them before they could react. Out of the smoke, she saw something crawling around on the ground. She recognized it as the same kind of hideous thing that was buried in Jeice's chest, but this one was bigger, and had a piece of spinal cord attached to it. Disgusted and dying to be done with this, she took her one still shodden foot and crushed it's head, killing it instantly, it's acid blood taking the sole of that shoe out as well.

"Ahh!" She shouted as she shot back in pain. Like what had happened when she killed Wheelo, the world suddenly went back to normal, and the skies were as blue as they were before. She noticed that the dead parasite was still there, and promptly turned it to ash with a ki blast. She wheeled around to find a very confused Pan staring at her blankly.

"Pan!" Bra shouted, and ran over to hug her friend. While she reciprocated, Pan's response was one of confusion.

"What happened? I saw you get struck by a purple lightning bolt, and you disappear! Then I see these blurry lines, and parts of the hallway blow up!" Bra looked around, realizing her ki blasts had busted up part of the school. Pan looked her friend over. "And what happened to your feet?"

Bra looked down and noticed that she was still wearing that one sneaker that had it's botttom completely dissolved. She peeled it off and gingerly started to walk to the direction of her locker, both her feet were still a little sore and red from whatever was in those things blood.

"Ok, I'll try to explain as best I can." Bra took a deep breath. "You ever heard of the Ginyu Force? "

Pan thought back and vaguely recalled hearing something about them. "I think so."

"Well, they were supposed to be dead. Only they apparently weren't because I just had to fight them. And something was just _weird _about them."

"How so?"

"Well, they looked like... zombies I guess, but … different. And they had these weird... bug-worm things in them."

"Cool!" Pan interjected.

"No. No. Not cool. Disgusting."

"You were saying?"

"Oh yeah, well, their blood musta been acidic or something, and that's why i'm not wearing shoes now."

"I see." Pan said. "Wait, was this anything like when that thing attacked you a few days ago?"

"Almost exactly, except every one of these guys were way stronger than that metal freak." They reached Bra's locker and she opened it up and got out her spare pair of converse and slipped them on.

"C'mon" Bra said. "Lets see if we can help anyone out in the lunch room. The ran back in the direction of the lunch room. Pan mentally questioned why they didn't do that before she put on new shoes, but thought better of it and said nothing. When they got to the lunch room, they found that the doors were melted shut from the lightning. Pan gave the door a light kick, forcing it open. Inside they found a very panicky crowd trying to force open the other doors or break through the reinforced windows. Where the lightning struck the building there was a gaping hole, surrounded by purple flames. Pan and Bra saw at least two people lying on the ground not moving, They could tell through their lack of ki that they were dead. And all around lay injured students, some unconscious, some not. The frightened student's quickly realized that A door was open and they all rushed toward it. Pan and Bra jumped out of the way. Normally, they would be against using their powers in front of people, but with the situation so dire, and the fact that everyone else was too panicked to notice, the decided to make an exception.

Bra went up to the purple flames and drew her hands back. She clapped them together thunderously, the shock waves putting out the flames. She blurred out of sight before the students trapped behind the fire could get a good look at her. Meanwhile, Pan lifted a fallen column off a table that was trapping some unconscious youths. Then the two regrouped to survey the situation some more. They seemed have gotten everything mostly under control. Then Bra noticed a loose brick that just in that instant teetered out of place and was falling, about to hit a boy in the head. As if by reflex, Bra shot off in his direction, everything seeming to slow down thanks to her superhuman reflexes. She was going to just blast the brick to atoms, when she noticed that the would-be victim was in fact Sheat. For a few short instants, she considered not saving him, but the fact that she could think that even for a second horrified her. Still, she didn't have to be gentle.

"Look out!" She shouted toward him. She opted to tackle him out of the way

"Ooof!" he said upon impact. "Watch it" He said, then looked over to see his rescuer. "Oh it's you."

Bra said nothing. Monita, who had been standing next to him came over to him screaming.

"You could have been killed!" She grabbed him by the arm and started pulling him to the exit.

"Yeah, but knowing her, I coulda gotten crabs too..." He muttered. Bra just looked at the ground for a few seconds until she heard sirens coming and quickly left the scene with Pan in tow.

"Attention students." The principal's voice came over the school's PA system. "Please remain calm and move toward the auditorium. Your parents have been notified. I repeat, your parents have been notified. They should be here shortly, and when they pick you up, you are free to go home."

"Parents..." Bra thought for a second. "Pan! You cannot tell my mom or dad anything about what I just told you. Or yours either"

"What, Why not?" Pan inquired, finding the very suggestion odd.

" If they find out i've been attacked twice in the same week, they'll never let me out of the house. That means no school, no hanging out, and no Goten. I can't deal with that right now."

"So what do you want me to say?"

"Just say it was a freak thunderstorm."

"You want me to lie?"

" Please... you know how important this is to me."

"Oh – okay, but just this once." Bra hugged her friend once again. " 'N you owe me.

The two walked off in the direction of the auditorium and waited for their parents to arrive. When they did, they arrived together, although Vegeta and Trunks were out of the town at the moment.

"Are you girls alright, what happened?" Videl, Pan's mother, asked. They had heard some details on the news on the way over , but nobody seemed to know exactly what happened.

"Well..." Pan started, looking guilty. Bra subtly nudged her with her elbow. "I don't really know, it looked like a lightning storm."

"Are you sure you didn't see anything?" Videl pressed on. Gohan, Pan's father, interrupted.

"Now honey, we should just be glad our little girl is alright." He smiled at his daughter.

"Aww daddy..." she said, still feeling guilty.

Bulma interjected. "Was anyone seriously injured? "

Bra hung her head. "We think 2 kids died. And several more were hurt pretty bad."

"I'm sorry sweetie..." Bulma said, putting a kind hand on her shoulder.

"But we were able to save some people." Pan cut in. " Bra even saved that boy that played that horrible prank on her."

"You did?" Bulma said, her face brimming with pride.

"Yeah, I mean, it was nothing major..." Bra was still beating herself up for even considering not to save him.

"I'm proud of you honey."

"Thanks mom. Listen, can we go home now, I'm really tired."

"Of course!" Bulma said and the two families walked out the back door together. As they were getting into the car, Bra got a text message. She quickly checked it out when she found out it was from Goten.

_I just saw it on the news, are you okay_

Bra smiled, blushed and began to think of an appropriate reply. The fact that he had sent this text to her instead of his own niece showed things that both he and Bra were unaware of.

When Bra finally got home, she retired to her bedroom immediately.

She heard her mom calling behind her. "Don't take too long of a nap, your dad will be home in about an hour and he'll want to check on you.

" 'Kay" Bra replied. She took off her shoes and noticed that her feet had already healed.

_Being a Saiyan does have it's perks_. She thought to herself. She didn't bother changing her clothes, she just laid on top of her bed, crossed her legs, and eased into a deep sleep.


End file.
